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<title>Dig, dig, still don't know by YutaisTaettooed</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23434753">Dig, dig, still don't know</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/YutaisTaettooed/pseuds/YutaisTaettooed'>YutaisTaettooed</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>NCT (Band), WayV (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Established Relationship, M/M, Somnambulist, Sort Of</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 11:27:27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,209</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23434753</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/YutaisTaettooed/pseuds/YutaisTaettooed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>They meet him on the twenty-first night.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Qian Kun</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Dig, dig, still don't know</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is a little something I wrote during a sleepless night.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The sand under Kun’s bare feet is cold. The wind swiping his hair is cold. And he knows that the water pooled around Ten’s thighs is cold, too.</p>
<p>The waves are strong and reach further than usual.</p>
<p>Kun only sees Ten’s head from his position, half a meter away from the deep hole. He wants to go down and help him, but he also knows that it’s too risky.<em> It is a myth that it is dangerous to wake up a sleepwalker because it may cause them a heart attack, shock, brain damage, or something else. </em></p>
<p><em>It is a myth</em>.</p>
<p>Frankly, Kun doesn’t know what to believe anymore.</p>
<p>Here he is, watching Ten dig deeper and deeper and deeper into the stubborn sands of the lifeless beach. Kun looks around and there is no one else on the shore besides them. Only the sand, the waves, the wind and the heavy clouds.</p>
<p>Ten works as if on autopilot, which makes sense to some extent; everytime Kun asks him what it is like, Ten looks at him with sparkling eyes and says, “It feels like I’ve let someone else take control of my body. I can’t do anything I want to, but there’s no panic. I’m not afraid of the lack of power, because whoever’s influence I'm under at the moment needs me and I’m willing to help.”</p>
<p>Kun bends so he can see him clearly. Ten’s eyes are closed but his lips are moving, shooting rapid words in unfamiliar language. His arms move rhythmically. Big scoops of stubborn sand fly behind him, while bigger avalanches slide before his knees. The sight would make anyone think it’s pointless, but Ten’s motives are not really Ten’s and he nor Kun can do anything about it, as pathetic as it may seem. On the third night Kun ran back to the house and fetched his cousin’s old plastic shovel and tried to help him dig, but the moment the small shovel sank into the light brown sands Ten froze and fell unconscious in the pit he dug himself. That was Kun’s first and last attempt at helping.</p>
<p>It’s the twenty-first night. They still don’t know the reasons. Every night Ten sleepwalks to the beach, different place each time; he gets on his knees and starts digging in the sand beneath him, mumbling under his breath. Ten diggs calmly, but speedily. Sometimes for hours, his abused fingers raw and bleeding. Sometimes he wakes up barely thirty centimeters in. No matter when he stops he always feels light-headed and faint, but never lost or confused. He’s aware of his actions even if he doesn’t know what or who makes him do it.</p>
<p>Tonight Ten is sitting on his knees in a pit at least a meter and a half deep. This time it’s closer to the wild waves and water fills the bottom, soaking his shorts. It’s been three hours of relentless digging and Kun knows he will have to bandage almost his whole hands in the morning.</p>
<p>Kun moves to sit down when Ten’s head whips to the left, his eyes wide, mouth tightly shut. Kun freezes and follows his gaze until it stops on a figure sprawled on the shore by the big black rock. Ten’s sudden sharp inhale snaps Kun out of his short trance and he looks at the younger. In his right hand Ten is clutching a knife of some sort. A dagger, Kun realises when the clouds above them let the moonlight wash over Ten in its silver light.</p>
<p>The dagger is long and double-edged, encrusted. The handle is long, Ten’s palm hugging only half the length, and beautifully jeweled. It is pretty and eye catching.</p>
<p>Suddenly Ten turns and looks at Kun. He tosses the dagger next to Kun’s feet and stands up on wobbly legs, reaching for his boyfriend with a quiet whimper. His eyes start to fill with tears and Kun hurries to pull him out of the pit so he can wrap his arms around him and soothe him.</p>
<p>It takes a few minutes for Ten’s breathing to go back to normal. When he is calm enough he takes a hold of Kun’s hand and picks the dagger, “I have to give it to Him.” Ten doesn’t wait for an answer and Kun follows closely while they walk towards the stranger still laying on the deserted beach.</p>
<p>A startled gasp rips out of Kun’s throat when they near the figure. Next to him Ten stiffens but doesn't say anything and continues walking.</p>
<p>The face belongs to an exceptionally beautiful male with gentle but prominent facial features; eyebrows dark and strong, jawline defined and sharp. His hair is thick and black and silky. His lips are parted, stuttering breaths pouring out of them. His head is tilted to the right and there are thin horizontal gaps on the side of his slender neck. Gills. The male is laying on his back. His torso is smooth with skin, that reminds Kun of that of a dolphin, no nipples or a belly button. The fins on arms catch the moonlight.</p>
<p>No legs.</p>
<p>He has a tail. A fishtail.</p>
<p>From the waist down his skin starts to blend into big shiny scales that merge into a thin veil of delicate tail.</p>
<p>The creature - the merman is mesmerizing.</p>
<p>The couple stay rooted to their place, observing him silently until Ten tugs Kun’s hand and they go even closer.</p>
<p>The merman’s eyes shoot open and snap to meet Ten’s. The eye contact is intense until the merman breaks it just to glance at the dagger in Ten’s hand. He tries to sit up, but winces and falls back on the wet sand.</p>
<p>Kun moves on instinct and reaches forward, but Ten’s bloody fingers pull him backwards. The merman watches with unsettling calm. When Ten approaches him he doesn’t flinch or react. He moves only to tug the dagger out of Ten’s hand.</p>
<p>Ten immediately retreats when the transfer is done. Unexpectedly a big mass of salty water crashes around them, Kun hugs Ten to his chest while the water drags the sinking sands around and under their feet. When they break apart the merman is gone.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The morning breeze ruffles the leaves of the old magnolia and their shadows dance across Ten’s droopy eyelids.</p>
<p>They went back home after several hours of mindless staring at the dark expanse of the sea. Neither of them was able to sleep; it was the twenty-first sleepless night in a row and they would manage just like they did on the twentieth, on the fourteenth and on the first night.</p>
<p>Kun sighs, his chest warm against Ten’s cheek. He has his fingers in the younger’s hair, slowly dragging them through the locks.</p>
<p>“Now what?” Asks Ten in a small voice.</p>
<p>Franky, Kun still doesn't know what to believe. Was the night real? Or was that just a very complex and abstract dream his brain offered after weeks of restless nights? Was He real? Did he imagine Him? But Ten was there, and when Kun asked for confirmation in an unsure tone, Ten said <em>He is real</em>. And that’s that.</p>
<p>So now Kun gives his lover his most honest answer.</p>
<p>“I don’t know.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>⭐<br/>31.03.2020 г.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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